As Holmes resumed his languishing and silence I glanced through The Times noticing how Holmes had ringed several items in the agony columns to which he always turned to eagerly. On many occasions the whole tide of cases he had been working on turned because of what he had read and deduced from the guarded and frankly mystifying messages in its columns. Nothing today had seemed to spark his interest and exercised his immense intellect, without a case to utilise his talents he was prone to lying around motionless and inert with barely a word passing his lips, at times like this I was concerned for his well-being as both his friend and physician and I could not help but glance to the leather bound morocco case there on the mantlepiece and would fervently pray that my friends ennui would not drive him once more to that seven percent solution which he found so stimulating.
My reverie was interrupted by Holmes " If you care to look on the breakfast tray you will find a letter there for you" I was not surprised the letter should have ended up on the tray amongst the remains of breakfast, indeed, I was only too pleased that my unopened correspondence had not ended up like Holmes' own, affixed to the wooden mantlepiece by a jack-knife. A little while later my thoughts were again interrupted by Holmes " I rather think Watson that a trip to Lyme Regis to see an old friend from your university would be a capital idea" " By all thats sacred Holmes" I cried " Have you read the contents of a private letter to pull off this mind-reading trick ? " "Really Watson I would hope you know me better than that my old friend. No my deduction which has obviously hit the mark was based on observation pure and simple". " I cannot see what I could have possibly done to enable you to make such a deduction" I replied. " My dear fellow, you always remain perplexed at these little parlour games of mine and yet when I explain my reasoning as revealed to me by your features and movements you will no doubt declare it to be most elementary" " Nevertheless Holmes I would be grateful if you could reveal to me the workings of that fine intellect" Holmes was entirely susceptible to flattery and my well-chosen words would brought forth his explanation with a flush of pleasure. " Very well Watson, after reading through the contents of the letter you sat back and smiled with the countenance of one recalling their youth, you glanced up at your diploma from the University of London, thereby alerting me to the fact that this was almost certainly a missive from a friend of those days, you then walked to the bookcase and opened up a copy of Jane Austens overly romantic novel Persuasion and opened it to a page which equates to an episode where one of her chief characters foolishly jumps down some steps on the buttress known as The Cobb in the seaside town of Lyme Regis, as you returned to your seat your hand briefly lighted upon the Bradshaws, at which point I interrupted your thoughts to your consternation and surprise" " Remarkable Holmes" " Elementary Watson, I would be a dullard indeed if I could not interpret that evidence"
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